[Upshot Cof­fee in Heath­cote is home to the best cof­fee beans in Christchurch. Now it's own­ers, Justin and Mee­gan, have opened Café Rhom­bus next door. Our writer finds out what it is like.]

All good things come to those who wait! Who said that? I don't know, but I think he hit the nail on the head if he was mean­ing all of us who have been wait­ing for the new Café Rhom­bus in the Heath­cote Val­ley's Sta­tion Road to open. Not that there was any­thing wrong with the 'old cafe' espe­cial­ly if the weath­er was fine and you had remem­bered to take some cash with you when you left home.

But before we trans­fer our loy­alties from the old to the new, I think it is impor­tant to acknowl­edge what a won­der­ful gath­er­ing spot Upshot Cof­fee has been. Do they give Her­itage Sta­tus to old butcher shops turned cof­fee roas­t­er­ies? I think they should. For­tu­nate­ly we are not real­ly los­ing any­thing, Upshot will still be there, so we will have gained a Café and not lost a roas­t­erie, and lots of famil­iar faces greet­ed us at the café. The new edi­fice is just right.

[Sir Ker­ry Burke is stand­ing for elec­tion as a Coun­cil­lor for the Sprey­don Heath­cote Ward in the Octo­ber elec­tions. One of his key pol­i­cy points is to give greater pri­or­i­ty for clean­ing up the Heath­cote River. Here, Sir Ker­ry explains why.]

The char­ac­ter of much of our Sprey­don – Heath­cote Ward derives from the Heath­cote River. Its con­di­tion is not as good today as it was in ear­lier years. There are far few­er fish and too many planned sewage spills. We can and must do bet­ter.

Lead­er­ship at any level of gov­ern­ment or in a busi­ness or fam­i­ly is about set­ting pri­or­i­ties because resources are always lim­it­ed. Greater pri­or­i­ty should have been given to the river that defines the Ward.

[The famous Coast To Coast endurance event cross­es the coun­try to fin­ish in our Port Hills elec­torate. With the recent con­tro­ver­sy over using ratepay­er dol­lars to set up events in our city, Islay McLeod, a can­di­date for the Hagley Fer­rymead Com­mu­ni­ty Board in the Octo­ber elec­tions, gives her thoughts on this issue.]

28 years ago, Robin Jud­kins start­ed an event expect­ing 35 entries (he got 79) and the now-legendary Coast To Coast is cred­it­ed with start­ing mul­ti-sport in this coun­try. Many years ago, two wom­en start­ed a local fundrais­er in Nel­son. That turned into the World of Wear­able Arts. 30 years ago, a group in San Diego start­ed a Sand Sculp­ture con­test and that's grown into an event that even attract­ed a City Coun­cil­lor from Christchurch New Zealand.

Point being ... great events aren't bought, they're born. There has been a lot of crit­i­cism about Coun­cil­lor Sher­iff's trip to San Diego to study a "sand castle com­pe­ti­tion" – from me includ­ed – but the biggest waste of time and our money is that she has not appar­ent­ly returned with a copy of their Pro­duc­tion Sched­ule.

Jim Ander­ton, the Peo­ple's May­or can­di­date in Christchurch's Octo­ber coun­cil elec­tions, wants to see a res­o­lu­tion to the ongo­ing woes of Lyt­tel­ton's recre­ation­al mari­na.

Magazine Bay Mari­na has been left in decline for over a decade since its break­wa­ter was removed. Many recre­ation­al boat own­ers are unable to insure their ves­sels, which have no pro­tec­tion from the fierce souther­ly winds that blow across the har­bour from Geb­bies Pass. Cur­rent­ly, many Christchurch boat own­ers are incon­ve­nienced by moor­ing their boats in Pic­ton.

Jim Ander­ton said, "This long sor­ry saga has gone on for far too long.  Boat own­ers have been let down bad­ly by the coun­cil over the years. If I'm elect­ed May­or, I want to work with boat own­ers, the peo­ple of Lyt­tel­ton and its port com­pa­ny to provide an urgent and long term solu­tion that is sus­tain­able in terms of local envi­ron­ment, jobs, recre­ation and the econ­o­my.